The Optimise Health Blog

So you are getting tired in the middle of the day and you reach for an energy drink...but do you really know what you're drinking and what the effects are? find out here - these little time-bombs are best left well alone... Dr Ben Sinclair Linked In Profile Twitter: Follow @menshealthtips  About Sinclair Health Ltd

Funding squeeze forces practices to axe salaried GPs and staff - Pulse : my comment got star letter! 'via Blog this' Dr Ben Sinclair Linked In Profile Twitter: Follow @menshealthtips About Sinclair Health Ltd

 Here in the UK many still practise the Christian tradition of Lent: the discipline of giving something up to consider living simply, frequently a food item and for health benefit. The idea is to mimic the 40 day fast undertaken by Jesus in the wilderness, when he was tested by the devil and tempted to prove he was ready to start his mission. In England we start by making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday - to use up the sweet stuff in the larder so we are not tempted to eat it again for the duration of lent and to fuel the fast. Today the focus may be more about the challenge of reining in appetite or curbing bad habits like smoking or eating treats to excess and less about Christs' 40 days and nights in the desert being stalked by satan. Interestingly most ancient traditions held in them the concept of feasts: I.E. celebrating a particular event or time of year with a party and food. This meant eating special luxuries or taking pleasure in rarer foods or harvest time...

So Womens magazines and health insurance are always going on about your BMI as a measure of a healthy weight. This calculation uses your height and weight to group results, saying you're on track, under or more likely overweight. However BMI was developed when the average man was 5"9 and 70 kg. With modern nutrition we are certainly getting bigger all round. This is illustrated by my gramps who was one of the heaviest forwards in the Scotland international rugby squad pre and post ww2 (see my first blog post). As a flanker he was 6 ft and a lean 14 stone at his peak. I am the same size but (no-where near his lean ability) certainly not in the national rugby team. Healthy men who lift weights may be mislabelled by BMI as unhealthy and obese or overweight. My advice is to go by abdominal circumference or the widest measure of your tummy at rest breathing out. You don't see active bodybuilders with large overhanging bellies, so this is a better measure of trunk...